[Mark Bourgeois]

Bill Coore and Rod Whitman both in their feature interviews mention Coore's first course as one of their favorites that readers may not be familiar with.

And yet: bare glancing mentions in this discussion group -- Ran mentioned the USGA did a "Great Golf Hole" back in the 1980s -- and zero pictures!

I read somewhere (I think) the greens have been altered, but still: doesn't anyone have pictures or comments to share?

Given the high regard many have for the man, it seems odd in the least that no one has bothered to give it the "GCA.com treatment!"

(Or have I yet again botched the search function...)

Thanks,
Mark

[Tom_Doak]

When I was with Bill and Ron Whitten at the Golf Digest Panelist Summit in December, the subject of our first courses came up, and Bill said he had gotten back to Rockport a year ago.  He said some of it was well preserved, but some was pretty far gone ... including a split fairway par 5 on the front (I think it was the fifth hole) where one fairway had been let go.  It's really amazing how fast Nature takes back over without the commitment of maintenance; the course opened just in 1984 or 85.

Alas, I only played it once and didn't take any pictures.  There are a lot of cool greens there.  One of my favorite holes was the par-3 2nd along a small water hazard on the left ... it had a huge green divided by mounds, so you either played very close to the water to attack a left-hand pin, or bailed to the fat of the green and then tried to two-putt over the mounds, which was very difficult to do.  Never seen another hole quite like it; I think it was only 130 yards, but it was a real gut check.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Baxter Spann enjoyed playing there a little over a year ago.
I understand there is a bit more housing that when built.
I'd like to visit soon.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Tom, your memory's good but no longer perfect. The gut check comes at the 3rd. It is 130 yards and the green is huge.

[Tom_Doak]

Mark:

I guess my memory IS failing me -- I dug out the old scorecard, sure I was correct, but the hole I remembered is indeed the third.

I believe Bill inherited the routing for the front nine from a land planner who had already platted the houses, so he had to stick to it -- sort of like East Hampton -- but was free to do what he wanted on the back nine.  This makes for an interesting scorecard, with a front nine of 2958 yards par 35, and a back of 3497 yards par 36, total 6455 yards from the back tees.  Interestingly, too, there were four sets of markers with other totals of 5748, 5087, and 4229.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Is the 3rd your strongest memory of the course?

[Tom_Doak]

Mark:

There are a few holes I still remember -- it was the par-4 second which was the USGA Great Hole, which is why I got confused about the numbering, and the par-5 fifth with its split fairways was interesting, though I think Bill told me they have abandoned or built on one of the alternate fairways now.

However my overall impression is just that it had a great set of greens, which is still quite rare to see in a new course.  Just between us, those greens had a lot more variety than some of Bill and Ben's more famous courses, with a couple of notable exceptions.

[Mark Bourgeois]

The 5th alternate fairway remains intact. Do you remember the greens on the short par 4s 4th and 16th? And can you name any greens smaller than the 16th? Does anyone today build a green that tiny?

What about the 12th: is that a par 3 knockoff of riviera 10?

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